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12 week old pup peeing in his crate...

Ok...so my lab pup has been crate training. He's 100 percent reliable around the house when we are there with him.....he goes to the door and lets us know when he needs to GO. However nighttime is a different deal. He's not having accidents every night but he's having probably 2 or 3 a week. His crate is a Precision Pet Products crate....the one for dogs up to 110 pounds. We have been making sure he goes out several times every evening...he always does his deed.....usually pees several times and poops as well. We ALWAYS take him out one last time before we go to bed and we try to limit his water intake just a bit in the evenings....he drinks like a dang horse if we let him. I guess I'm going to answer my own question....I need to get up in the middle of the night and let him out?? At this age how long should he be able to hold it? How often do you let your pups out at night? And another thing....sometimes he barks and lets us know but it's almost always too late by the time I get there to let him out.

Ok...so my lab pup has been crate training. He's 100 percent reliable around the house when we are there with him.....he goes to the door and lets us know when he needs to GO. However nighttime is a different deal. He's not having accidents every night but he's having probably 2 or 3 a week. His crate is a Precision Pet Products crate....the one for dogs up to 110 pounds. We have been making sure he goes out several times every evening...he always does his deed.....usually pees several times and poops as well. We ALWAYS take him out one last time before we go to bed and we try to limit his water intake just a bit in the evenings....he drinks like a dang horse if we let him. I guess I'm going to answer my own question....I need to get up in the middle of the night and let him out?? At this age how long should he be able to hold it? How often do you let your pups out at night? And another thing....sometimes he barks and lets us know but it's almost always too late by the time I get there to let him out.

His crate is to big for him. Dogs will not usually pee in the spot that they sleep on. Block off the back of the crate with a box so that he only has room to curl up. He should be able to hold it at least 6 hours if he has been well aired before bed time AND if he doesn't have a bladder infection.

Put the crate beside your bed so you can hear him or just outside your bedroom door but close enough so you can hear him if he needs letting out in the night. The trick is to get him outside BEFORE he soils his crate so he has to be in easy earshot and you have to be ready to go outside yourself. I'm not a fan of limiting water but no water in the crate over night.

If this is a crate for a dog up to 110 pounds .... your puppy has too much room and has the ability to use one part of the crate as his bedroom and the other as his bathroom. When crate training we put a divider into the kennel to give the pup enough room to stand up, turn around and comfortably lay down. The divider is then moved to give them enough room as the puppy grows.

Limit the water in the evening, limit the space in that big crate and is the crate in your bedroom so that you can hear him when he wakes up? And yes, you can expect to get up during the night as they learn what this whole "housebreaking thing" is all about.

Thanks for the replies folks....really appreciate it. My wife and I had discussed the crate might be too big but we talked ourselves out of it. I just put the divider in....the crate won't fit in our bedroom but we can leave the door open so we can hear him better. I bet this makes a big difference.

Thanks again....he's not our first retriever but he is the first to live in the house. REALLY enjoying having him closer to us....

Not even for the night, then moved to a new location in the morning? We haul crates from room to room all the time when raising a pup. IMO it is worth the inconvenience to have the pup right there so we can take care of its needs immediately with zero delay.

Not even for the night, then moved to a new location in the morning? We haul crates from room to room all the time when raising a pup. IMO it is worth the inconvenience to have the pup right there so we can take care of its needs immediately with zero delay.

Not without purchasing another smaller crate.

I put the partition in and so far no accidents.....we'll see how it goes in the next week or so. I'll buy another crate that takes less room if I he doesn't improve and isn't diagnosed with an infection.